Fortunately for my readers, I never got into that subculture. So when they’re tired of cheerleaders always getting the guy…

There are writers for everyone. How I wish I were starting out today – then I’d have the energy for all those books. It’s an explosion out there.

I’m rereading Travis McGee. I think he used to play football.

Caleb Pirtle

Travis McGee has always been my hero, Alicia. And I believe John D. MacDonald is one of the finest writers to ever spin a yarn. Because he wrote mysteries, he never received his due as a writer of literary fiction.

I have written romance novels, mystery novels, and computer programs. I can say with 100% certainty and a great deal of emphasis, romance novels are far and away the hardest to write of those three.

The writer has to know the characters’ inside and out. The characters have to struggle with internal conflicts that keep them apart while also struggling with an external conflict that throws them together. The characters must grow and learn and evolve. They must resolve the external conflict in a way that helps them resolve their internal conflicts, and all this must be accomplished in a logical, interesting, well-paced way that holds the reader’s interest. Murder and computer code are both much easier to deal with!

Caleb Pirtle

Sally, that’s why I write mysteries and thriller. I can’t write well about matters of the heart, but I can put a bullet through one. This blog, as I’m sure you guessed, was written tongue in cheek, but the point I wanted to make was that all romance book covers may look alike, but every story is different. You could give ten romance writers the same characters and same basic plot, and you would have ten entirely different novels.

Sally Berneathy

Yes, Caleb, I love your tongue-in-cheek blogs. I thought Google’s definition…the mere fact that Google has a definition!…was hilarious! When I went to work as a computer programmer, I kept telling all those nerds that writing romance novels was way harder than what we were doing. Of course they stuck their noses in the air at that comment. I told them I had done both so I should know! Before I left there, I think I convinced a few of them.

Caleb Pirtle

Sally, computer programming is pretty much black and white. Romance has a thousand colors and most of them clash.

Sally Berneathy

Exactly! They have some things in common…such as a need to begin at Point A and work logically to Point Z. But you have a limited range of actions in a computer program, and when it’s finished, if it works, it’s finished! It’s perfect! I have finally accepted that no novel can ever be “perfect” since it’s art and deals with people. As you say, thousands of colors. It can also never be finished if I keep going over it again and again!